Adam

I was wondering today, where do the directors of our theme parks (mainly those of Dreamworld and Movie World) operate from? Do they actually have full-time offices in our parks, such as a secret location in Main St for Movie World, or are they situated in some high-rise in the city?

Absolutely not. Can you not comprehend how much something like that could damage the company? Staff Member: "The second train malfunctioned." Guest #1: "Did you hear the second train crashed?" Guest #2: "Apparently someone was really hurt." Guest #3: "Yep, and blood was pouring everywhere. They died at the scene." ... Parks do not and will not answer these questions for a very good reason. It's also not always clear how long a ride (or train) will be out of operation for and what the specific reasons are.

You—and everyone else—has a right to be annoyed at Movie World for excessive queuing. I too would be a little annoyed. Most of us have come to expect top-quality service from Australia’s premier theme and (soon-to-be) thrill park and it’s annoying when that level of service drops down to a slightly-above Dreamworld level. I think the biggest message to get out of this thread is that there was some sort of problem preventing the second train from being put into operation. I’ve never been on Superman Escape when they’ve been operating with only one train. There are very few parks that will ever disclose specific information about the operations or “misoperations” of a ride to the general public. Don’t blame Movie World for this. For a start, many of the staff members would actually be telling the truth when they say they don’t know. The engineers at the park could spend their time a little more constructively than trying to explain to every staff member in the park about why a ride has malfunctioned or why it’s not in operation (or full operation in this case). Finally, I don’t think the time of the day really has anything to do with it. The park closes at 5:30. If someone arrives in the afternoon—which the new Super Passes actually promote—then they still shouldn’t have to queue for extended periods of time.

I'm pretty sure, like most water parks, WhiteWater World will have a complex array of pipes and filters that will facilitate the filling of the pools and slides. It will simply be a matter of them flicking on the switch (although obviously the system will be in a special mode for the initial fill). Once the water has been used, i.e. gone down a slide or been successfully deployed as a wave in the wave pool, it'll be sent back to the filtering plant so it can be recycled. Does anyone know how much water water parks draw on an average day? I’m sure an efficient park wouldn’t use that much more than any other theme park. Although I’m sure on hot days they would lose a fair amount to evaporation. I guess it would also depend on the efficiency of the attractions; leaks, ‘splashage’ and other escapes would drive water usage up a fair amount. I think it's a definite that WhiteWater World will see many additions in the coming years. Although many, I'm sure, will simply be carnival rides placed next to the water slides.

If WhiteWater World copied Wet 'n' Wild, then Wet 'n' Wild copied every other water park in the world. As for the little cones, I think they simply catch water that has spilled from the (big) bucket. Gravity would then cause the cones to tip over once they are carrying enough water/weight.

Thanks dj. What a disappointment.

That's a really good point Gazza. It sounds as though that policy has just been carried through from the early days when it was three parks plus a bonus. It doesn't really make sense why they would force you to visit each park.

It's great to see more choice hitting the Gold Coast. It'll be interesting to see how they price the Summer Pass. Many first-timers who visit the Gold Coast and want a bit of theme park action usually hit up the Super Pass, but I know a few returning vistors who think it's too expensive to go for another Super Pass if it hasn't been long since they were here. I think the Summer Pass—if it's reasonably priced (it'd have to be less than full admission into both parks)—will become quite popular. Any chance of them offering Super Annual passes? It sounds like Dreamworld are going to do this. It's certainly a great marketing tool for tourists who happen to have family living in Queensland (with passes).

The Global Language Monitor has estimated that there are over 1,000,000 words in the English language. That means there are over 999,998 words that are not "theme" or "park". It's an injustice to every theme park in the world to simply call a golf resort a theme park. If the $260 million dollar 'theme park' is indeed a golf resort then it's not looking good for the other $340 million dollar park.

That is insane news! $340 million is massive. How much did Disney spend on their Hong Kong park? The job was posted less than a month ago. Maybe someone could contact the job company for more information? How many civil engineers do we have on this board?

Movie World has done an absolutely outstanding job with the amount of money and resources they have at their disposal. I do think though that Universal Studios Hollywood is slightly (yes, only slightly) ahead of Movie World in terms of the park's organisation and overall guest experience. I still don't know why Movie World are using hand written signs to indicate wait times or why they don't have a more centralised park sound-system (that announces when major shows are starting etc.). It sounds small but they all add to the overall guest experience. Some of Movie World's policies are also a little ridiculous: no publishing of photos taken in the park and nothing in Superman riders' pockets. The exhaustive attraction v. attraction comparison does reveal that Movie World does have many attractions that are superior to those of Universal. We do have to remember though that it was Universal who designed the entire Shrek attraction. I also think that the Revenge of the Mummy attraction is quite a bit better than Scooby-Doo (for obvious budget reasons, but if we're comparing the parks directly then this is very relevant). The effects on Revenge of the Mummy are second only to Disney. The Revenge of the Mummy ride is also very complete, you’d have a hard time trying to find any part of the attraction that is left unthemed or that looks tacky. I do agree 100% though with Richard about the physical terrain of the park. The huge escalator gets boring after, say, the first time you've been on it. I think everyone will agree that Movie World are moving in the right direction and are slowly increasing their share of the ever growing tourism market (which Dreamworld once owned alone). Movie World is able to offer something for everyone, which is certainly a great asset to any theme park. They have also separated themselves from Dreamworld in terms of quality and guest experience and will hopefully continue to grow and expand well, well, well into the future. Best Australian park, ever! Ever!

My best guess is that the ride was too old and noisy. Maintenance issues may have been a contributing factor too. Shark Bay is a million times better.

Your username is "dreamworld_rulz" yet you are getting annoyed at Movie World for having a 45 minute queue line?

You obviously seem to think that grey is the default colour for this type of ride. It's not. They are not simply "leaving" it grey; it has been painted that specific colour deliberately to allow for a Gotham City theme.

Google is god.

The last thing we need in Australia is another theme park using unnecessarily bright and unnatural colours. We have to remember that Movie World prides itself in the excellent level of themeing and detail they put into all of their rides. It would be a huge disappointment for them to simply paint the structure bright orange and pink just so it stands out. The ride is called Batwing and will be located in the Batman area of the park so we can only assume that the ride will take on some sort of Batman-related themeing. When was the last time you saw a Gotham City building that wasn't grey? Am I the only person here who is pleased that Movie World is continuing to theme their rides?

Great news. Why is grey such a bad colour? It seems the perfect Batman colour to me, plus it'll fade nicely into the sky so it appears as though the "Batwing" is actually flying.

Thanks Ian for the photos. Great to see the ride's construction powering ahead (in much the same way this ride will power Movie World ahead of Dreamworld).

It uses the brakes in the track. The sensors aren't in the carriage, they are on the track.

The probability of you being flung from the ride is essentially zero. It has never happened before. Many rides—I'm not sure if this includes the Tower of Terror or not—actually have sensors under the carriages/track that monitor whether or not the harnesses are sufficiently fitted and will not allow the ride to operate unless everything is secure. Many full circuit coasters (I'm thinking Scooby-Doo here) also have sensors placed throughout the ride which, in the event of a failing harness, will bring the ride to a hault. [The same sensor stations also check if all carriages are connected and that the trains are not exceeding a safe speed.] Be sure to update us on how the Tower of Terror goes.

Sound's interesting. I wonder if they'll decorate the park much.

A'men to that. We rode it three times last week and we managed to get in almost the exact same seat each time (twice in the 2nd to last row, once in the 3rd to last row). How unoriginal.

Ahh, you've missed out the quality factor. While the seven parks above Movie World have more rides, when you take the quality multiplier into consideration Movie World comes out as an all-round favourite and winner. Your mistake, no biggie.

I wait patiently for the ride to commence.

I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to watch that video clip again, at all, ever. It'd be much more exciting if they played some actual Scooby-Doo cartoons in the queue.